In One Part of You is Catching Fire author Mirene Arsanios writes: “If the city was made of people who aren’t themselves, who is digging the holes in which the towers are erected?” Our witnessing of the urban lived environment, perpetually in the throws of real, imagined and psychological forms of destruction, construction and reconstruction, is probed in this exhibition via reading and writing, image and symbolic plants.

The city is one of the most contested landscapes where physical layers of subjugation and formations of repression are imposed. Such acts of power and control are inescapable not just for inhabitants, but for all those who are aware of the city context as a document that attests to the political motivations of the time. While the urban acts as a constant backdrop, one that does not pause to make way for the writing of a sentence or the creation of an image, it is through these acts that the city, and our relationship in and with it, can be renegotiated.

This exhibition brings together works that all have a connection to the urban and were either produced in Turkey or have been presented in Turkey respectful to the local built and political climate. Several new compositions have been produced specifically for presentation at SALT Ulus, with aspects that reference Ankara in particular, by Onur Ceritoğlu, Nazım Hikmet Richard Dikbaş and Metehan Özcan. Complementing the exhibition is an installation of fanzines from Apricots from Damascus, the apexart Franchise Exhibition organized by Atıf Akın and Dilek Winchester, originally presented at SALT Galata.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a program of talks and workshops by participants. The first program, a conversation with Onur Ceritoğlu and Sinan Logie, will take place on the opening night, March 22, 19.00 at SALT Ulus.

The title of the exhibition Outside the sentence there was a city comes from Arsanios’ short story One Part of You is Catching Fire.